Fookin' Bruges

We are finally home but the adventure continues.

Saturday was our day in Bruges, which to be honest, we really knew very little about except for the movie In Bruges. As well as the little bit in our travel guide. We hopped a train that took about an hour; which we stood for half of due to the overcrowding of the train. Once we got to Ghent we finally got a seat.

The city is beautiful. It was a medieval fishing village that is now a tourist destination. The main streets are all high end shopping and food but when you get off the beaten path a little you see why people started coming here in the first place. Our fist stop was lunch. We got a bit of a late start and needed some sustenance. We found a cute little cafe right next to Onze-

Lieve-Vrouwe-Kerk. I decided that I would finally try the famed Moulles of Belgium only to be told it was not Mussel season and the Danish ones the restaurant had tried were not up to snuff so they would not be serving them. I was glad to know I had sat down at the one place that had the food love to do this. So I thought about all of the plates of mussels we had passed since arriving in Belgium and felt my superiority twinge ever so slightly. Now armed with this knowledge I was expecting a pretty good meal. In place of the mussels I opted for the Lasagna with lamb ragu. My initial thoughts were confirmed. It was amazing. A tall stack of Pasta, cheese, roasted veggies and meat sauce. What's not to love. The Mrs. had the quiche Lorraine, which was also flawlessly executed. To drink I had one of the local brews from Brewery of the Half Moon, It was their triple, the Straffe Hendrik. It was the best beer of the trip. Carmel and Lightly hoppy with a tight carbonation. From there we moved next door to the church. It was unbelievable. You always hear about the churches in Europe but until you see one for yourself nothing can describe it. To add to the excitement, housed in the church, is one of the only Michaelangelo sculptures to leave Italy It is The Madonna and child. It was breath-taking to see. There was also, and not mentioned in anything we read, a Caravaggio painting. It was just hanging there and nobody seemed to notice. It was a little faded and the depth was mostly gone, but it was still quite beautiful. Bruges is home to another world class art museum, The Groeninge, but we decided we had had enough Northern renaissance art for one trip. After the church we meandered through the streets, finding our way to the Half Moon brewery. We thought about doing the tour but opted for a nice drink on the patio instead so we could take in more of the city. I had their Zot Dubbel, a brown malty beer with hints of wood and hops, yet a little dry. It was not quite as good as the triple but still a world class beer. After leaving we headed to the Shoemakers guild house. On the way we stopped by a local beer store to pick up some local libation to bring home and considered climbing to the top of the clock tower in the center of town that plays a significant roll in the movie, but thought better of it. The guild house has been set up as a museum to show daily life in Bruges during medieval times and highlight the industry of the time, lace. It was a cute little museum but i'm glad we only paid 2 euros each to get in. And then it was back on the street and now the Mrs. had a craving for hot chocolate and who am I to argue with that. So we found a cute little coffee house. She got her hot chocolate and I had a cappuccino, which was the first good cup of coffee I'd had since we left the house. Moving on we stumbled into a city square that held another fabulous church. The Basiliek van Heilig-Blood. The draw here is that they claim to have two drops of holy blood brought back during the crusades. I don't know about all that but the sanctuary is magnificent. I am not a religious man but I can certainly appreciate the awe inspiring nature of these buildings. I wish more people could, I'm looking at you again Italy, no photos means "No Photos" and you live in a country littered with great churches. And now it was time for some dinner. We notice that when we were by the brewery a few of the restaurants had signs for their "asparagus menus". Knowing it was white asparagus season we headed back that way in search of this local delicacy. We found another restaurant, who's name I cannot recall, that was not serving mussels and slid into a table. I wanted some kind of fish while I was there so I ordered the North Atlantic Cod over white asparagus with potatoes in beurre blanc sauce and The Mrs. went for the White asparagus in egg and butter sauce, the name of which was slightly misleading. It was chopped hardboiled egg and parsley mixed with butter as a binder, not my thing but that's cool. My dish was perfect. The cod was firm but not chewy and the asparagus was slightly melty the only draw back was that the garnish was tiny little sauted shrimp that looked like yard grubs, yuck. For dessert we had the puff pastry with cherry sauce and homemade ice cream, this too was perfect. After our meal we realized we were cutting it a little close for getting to the train station. We did not realize how close until we got to a bus stop and saw that it was time for the last run of buses to make their way around the city. But, we made it with a few minuets to spare and then we were back on our way to Brussels to pack and prepare for life off vacation.